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Thursday, 28 May 2015

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

In 1999, Thora Birch was still a rising star
and American Beauty,as the first feature film directed by Sam
Mendes, appeared to be the beginning of a career by an exciting new director. God, it was good to be alive in those days...

Let's face it, American Beautyis a likeable and memorable
film. But it is also flawed in various
ways that you might or might not choose to overlook. Things start well, with that evocative piano
theme tune. And there are a bunch of
great lines and images that stick with you.
Some of my favourites include:

'Look Closer' (The sign on Spacey's desk)

'I will sell this house today'

'Fuck me, your majesty' – these last two from
the Annette Bening character.

'Have you got a minute?' 'For you, Brad, I've got five'

'I wanted to show my girlfriend your Nazi
plate, sir'

The cinematography is great throughout. And the theatrical lighting works really
well, such as when the Nazi dad approaches Spacey for a kiss, is rebuffed and
then fades perfectly into the darkness outside the garage.

On the negative side, it's impossible to
believe much of the plot. For example,
the scene where Spacey blags a year's severance pay and gets a job flipping
burgers. What happens after the
year? Plus in real life, the exit
interview would have had an HR suit present so that Spacey's trick simply wouldn't
have worked. This scene echoes the
similarly flawed job dismissal scene in Fight
Club.

And the neighbour is the world's most
unconvincing drug dealer.

And Mena Suvari's character could surely only
have been written by a middle-aged man.

A strength of the film is that every
character is seen sympathetically, even when they have vastly different world
views.

But the downside is that those sympathetic
views are often vilely sentimental and unrealistic. The neighbour's saintly mentally ill mother
is particularly unpleasant.

Somehow we have to balance the sympathetic
portrayal of Spacey's urge to return to the uncomplicated joys of childhood –
getting the car he always wanted and a remote controlled toy, smoking dope and
listening to Dad rock – with the hard-to-argue-with assessment of him from his
daughter as a 'lame-O,' a 'horny geek-boy who's gonna spray his shorts whenever
I bring a girlfriend home from school'.
This particular contradiction is quite enlightening, but overall there
is a slightly preachy message of fighting the system, throwing off the shackles
of middle class professional life and regaining the joys of childhood – and
when that message isn't backed up by realistic characterisation or events, it
descends into sentimentality.

The shots of suburban windowpanes made to
look like prison bars, the floating plastic bag, the petals, the creepy
neighbour with a camcorder – these are all iconic shots.

It'sone
of those strange films that combine wonderful and awful elements. Mendes' subsequent films could have gone
either way based on the evidence of American
Beauty. Sadly, in my view, as
with Birch's later career, it was all downhill after this one.

Thursday, 21 May 2015

"Gravity," Alfonso Cuaron, Film ReviewA series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

A tough one to score. I've erred on the side of generosity. It has two standout plus points – 1) the use
of existing technology and 2) the bizarre scene of a random cross-language
communication between space and Earth.
Overall it's more thoughtful than it strictly needs to be.

The film sets its technology within current
day boundaries and this is a strength and refreshing after countless space
films with AI computers, ray guns, space ships like souped-up cars, Earth
destroyed by nuclear bombs etc etc.
Okay, the Chinese space station doesn't exist yet, but the technology is
all based on the current International Space Station and Hubble Space
Telescope, which do exist. The scenes
showing the tiny space pod hurtling back to Earth does a great job of
demonstrating the physical reality of that process.

Another effective and unusual scene is when
the Bullock character has all but given up hope, then receives a random radio
signal from Greenland in a language she doesn't understand. Instead of making her give up completely (as it
could have done, a final nail in the coffin) it makes her relate on a primal
human level, working purely on names, sounds of dogs and babies. She starts howling herself in response.

The development of character in empty space
is all the more necessary. Clooney's
with his rambling and repetitious stories, but he suddenly snaps to "That's an
order," commanding Bulluck's character to stop work when the mission is
aborted.

Plot is driven by the idea of chain reactions
of space debris collisions causing millions more particles to be created in an
explosive escalation of trouble.

The remaining plot drivers or one problem
after another is standard Star Trek stuff.
And the chain reaction taking out all the satellites is a suitably
spacey equivalent to the teens lost in woods finding their mobile signal has
gone.

Bullock's character's loss of her one child
in an arbitrary playground accident leads her to reflect on the purpose of life
from the rare perspective of seeing Earth in all its glory in space –and her final decision that, yes, it is worth carrying on with seems
convincingly hard-won.

Visuals are great, of course, with moon in
background, huge Earth and iconic shots of Clooney and Bullock's faces in their
space helmets. Both characters talk
about blue eyes, both turn out to have brown eyes, and the subsequent close-ups
of, say, Bullock's brown eyes, along with her slender and vulnerable body when
out of the clunky spacesuit give a good visual and physical sense of frail
humanity in space.

Thursday, 14 May 2015

V For Vendetta, James McTeigue, Film Review

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on another work of art), see my introductory post here.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

The combination of comic book adaption and
Britishness is a disaster. Awful
risk-free nonsense from terrorist, V. Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why I hate comic books. The stakes seem lower because there are too many easy get-outs, total fantasy masquerading as semi-reality.

Lots of people saying 'Bloody Hell,' in an English accent, and about four people at a bar standing
in for an entire population.

I'm incapable of giving a 1/10 score to anything staring the divine Natalie Portman – but in a film where everyone's dialogue sounds
weirdly recorded and under-rehearsed, hers is no exception most of the time.

Film seems particularly ridiculous when seen afterBattle Of Algiers where you get what real 'righteous' terrorism looks like.

Stephen Fry is unspeakably bad, a disgusting vanity role.

The Nigel Farage-like presenter spouting
hate on the TV had some potential to be memorable, but even this wasn’t properly
realized, with his transition from TV character to real person too sketchy to be convincing.

Thursday, 7 May 2015

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on another work of art), see my introductory post here.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Effect of location and use of untrained actors is
superb. Looks like a city holiday
location but filled with soldiers.

Right-wing general who brings ruthless
interrogation torture to expose the pyramid structure of the terrorists has an
awful lot of resonance with today's world.

All the resistance fighters' sly tricks –
passing things around from person to person, guns left for young men to pick
out of wastebins and shoot policemen, sneaky hideouts behind tiled walls – all
have the ring of truth about them. It's
the most seemingly truthful film I can remember seeing.

The moral ambiguities and dilemmas are
carefully drawn out.

--> Use
of women and children to carry bombs

--> Each
of the three women bombers look around at the civilians including children that
they will kill. The politeness or
flirtatiousness of men to them at the future bomb site.

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About Me

I am a writer, artist and musician living in the UK. I share my thoughts on all things writing at michaelhardach.blogspot.com. This blog covers film reviews, creative writing tips, tutorials and support for writers.